Test Pilot

GENERAL

1. Why is the structure used to house an airplane called a hangar?
2. The four longest rivers in North America are, alphabetically, the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Rio Grande, and the Yukon. If you were to fly along one of these rivers, arrange them in order of their length with the longest first and the shortest last.
3. Name a type of well-known aircraft in which the pilot can extend (lower) the landing gear from the wheel wells but cannot retract it.
4. Oil weighs 7.5 pounds per gallon, and avgas weighs 6.0 pounds per gallon. How much does a gallon of water weigh?
5. A pilot is at an airport located at 34 degrees North, 118 degrees West. He is about to depart on a flight that will take him halfway around the world. What are the geographical coordinates of his destination?

MULTIPLE CHOICE

6. Which of the following does not belong?
   1. green, yellow, and white
   2. two whites and a green
   3. two whites and a yellow
   4. white and yellow
7. A pilot is flying VFR above the 5,000-foot-high floor of a Colorado valley while on a magnetic heading of 179 degrees and under the influence of an easterly wind. Which of the following cruise altitudes may not be used?
   1. 6,500 feet
   2. 7,500 feet
   3. 8,500 feet
   4. 9,500 feet

TRUE OR FALSE

8. The shortest (airplane) runway for which an instrument approach may be approved is 2200 feet.
9. The pilot of a Lockheed U-2 spyplane is in a normal turn at 70,000 feet msl. He might notice that the low wing is stalling (a stall buffet) at the same time that the high wing is generating a Mach buffet (the result of flying in excess of the airplane's maximum-allowable airspeed). Because each such buffet feels the same, the pilot does not know whether to increase or decrease airspeed to resolve the problem.

MIX 'N MATCH

Match these "famous firsts" with the year in which each event occurred. If unable to match them, simply list the events in chronological order.

ANSWERS

1. The word, hangar, comes from the French word, hangar, which means outhouse or shed.
2. The longest is the Mississippi River (2,340 sm), followed by the Missouri River (2,315 sm), the Yukon River (1,979 sm), and finally the Rio Grande River (1,900 sm).
3. Any of NASA's space shuttle orbiters (which have no retraction mechanisms).
4. 8.3 pounds per gallon. This means that water is heavier than oil and much heavier than avgas, which is why water settles so rapidly to the bottom of a fuel tank or fuel sampler.
5. 34 degrees South, 62 degrees East. The destination latitude must be as far south of the Equator as the departure point is north of the Equator. The longitude must change by 180 degrees.
6. c. The other light combinations describe the rotating beacons used at heliports, military airports, and seaplane bases (seaports), respectively.
7. d. The first two altitudes may be used because the aircraft would be less than 3,000 feet agl, and the hemispherical altitude rule would not be applicable. Because the aircraft is tracking along a magnetic course that must be in excess of 179 degrees (due to the crosswind), an altitude in excess of 3,000 feet agl must be "even plus 500."
8. False. There is no minimum runway length specified for an instrument approach. The runway at Andover, New Jersey, for example, is served by a VOR approach and is only 1,981 feet long.
9. True. The pilot is operating in "coffin corner," the upper limit of the airplane's performance envelope. The solution is to roll out of the turn to increase the speed of the inside wing and decrease the speed of the outside wing. If the buffet continues, then both wings are flying at either too low or too high an airspeed. Hopefully, the pilot can determine which is the case and make the appropriate airspeed adjustment. Otherwise, the condition can be exacerbated and can result in loss of control.

MIX 'N MATCH

(Anyone knowing only a few of these dates might recognize that the "famous firsts" are presented in chronological order.)

10. a. Orville Wright (1903)
11. b. Paul Cornu (1907)
12. c. Louis Blériot (1909)
13. d. Cal Rodgers (1911)
14. e. J. Alcock and A. Brown (1919)
15. f. James Doolittle (1922)
16. g. J. Macready and O. Kelly (1924)
17. h. Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett (1926)
18. i. Charles Lindbergh (1927)
19. j. James Doolittle (1929)
20. k. Wiley Post (1933)
21. l. Heinkel He-178 (1939)
22. m. Charles Yeager (1947)